SUMMARY OF HURRIED TRIP TO AVOID A BAD STAR M. Lilla & C. Bishop Barry The essay “Hurried Trip To Avoid a Bad Star” by M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry is taken from the article “Karnali, Roadless World of Western Nepal” which was published first in the National Geographic 140.5 (November, 1971). It presents an exploration of the region which the authors did on foot for fifteen adventures months. The authors started their trek from Jumla to view how Karnali Zone is economically linked to lowland regions of the south, Terai. The fellow travelers from the nearby area carried baskets filled with medicinal herbs, hashish, hand-knit sweaters and blankets to sell in terai. When they came over the steep of Hari lekh, of about 11,350 ft, they met a Chhetri woman of 30. She told him that her husband had gone to terai in search of work 15 yrs ago but didn’t return yet. So as he seems from the distant village she told him to send her husband if he had been in those areas. Thereafter in an oak and rhododendron forest of about 9,000 ft they saw a group of eight or nine men working around a small fire processing silajit, from a tar like deposit which oozes from mountains in their home valley, Sinza. When asked why they hadn’t processed it in their home, they replied that they were under a bad star so they left their village and processed it on the way. According to them, they should do any work on a propitious day. That’s why, to avoid the bad star, they hurriedly made their trip at night. This portion of this essay gives its title. As they descended lower regions, winter gradually lessens. Their way passed through a saal forest where they saw skeletal looking bare saal tress with hardly few leaves left on few of them. They heard a chopping sound from all directions. They saw women chopping the left green branches and leaves for their domestic animals. When Barry described the prospects of deforestation to them, shrugging their shoulders they asserted that the cows must eat. This showed them that the mountain would be bare and eroded in a few years. Finally they reached Nepalgunj. There he saw all the fellow travellers were busy in buying sweets, doughy pretzels, machinery goods and ironware, spice, jewellery and distillery equipments. Looking at such the hardest way of life, the geographers appreciated the people. The agriculture yields only subsistence reluctantly. So they have to combine farming with other pursuits for which they need to make journey through formidable paths. To sum up the essay, it highlights how the people of Karnali zone are dependent on terai for their bread and basket because of the lack of trade, good market, employment opportunity, industry. They produce their food crops and handicrafts but there’s no market to supply it. They have to descend to terai for work. They have to come to lowland regions to buy basic goods for their life. Besides, the essay also depicts the predicament of the Karnali people showing their account of lifestyle, superstition, tradition and culture of thousand years old and simple human frailties set against the staggering backdrop of Himalayas at an altitude of 11,000 ft in the remotest mountain province of Karnali via plateau down to the plains of terrain, Nepalgunj.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 05:46:24 +0000
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